Paul- Again!
by DancingStar01
Summary: The Alien Paul is back again on planet Earth. This time Connor, Lindsay and Peter get involved


Title: Paul- Again!  
Author: Dancing Star  
Crossover: PSI Factor / Paul  
Rating: 12  
Category: AU, Comedy, Mystery  
Summaries: The Alien Paul is back again on planet Earth. This time Connor, Lindsay and Peter get involved!  
Notes: I liked the movie "Paul- An alien on the run" (original title: "Paul") and I really laughed about the jokes. So I had to write this.  
Vegas, I still love you!

**Paul-Again! **

"We are actually in Roswell," Peter marveled when he left the camper, parked in front of a town sign near a small city in New Mexico. He and his friends Lindsay and Connor were on a trip through the United States. In the lower right corner of the sign a child had recently scribbled the face of an alien.  
Peter got out of the camper to take a photo of the sign.  
"Peter!", Lindsay exclaimed impatiently, "It's getting dark. We need to reach the campsite!" She hoped that in the only campsite was still a place for their rented mobile home and finally Peter climbed back into the vehicle. He sat behind the steering wheel and drove the camper down the street. Then, in front of an iron gate, he rolled down the driver's window and rang a bell. Peter had to push a button twice when a small woman with curlers in her hair appeared. "Good day", Peter said, although it was actually quite dark, "Do you still have a place for our camper?"  
"$ 50 per night," the woman replied.  
"$ 50?!", Connor repeated and Peter received a pat on the arm by Lindsay: "Take the parking lot," she hissed. Peter gave the woman a 50 dollar bill and the lady sent them to the end of the camp, where they could park their caravan.  
"I don´t understand," Connor said, who was sitting on the back seat behind Peter, "There are so many parking spaces available and she sends us to the end of the camp..." In fact there were only four or five campers in the parking lot, although it certainly took 20 vehicles.  
"Maybe there´s no camping season at the moment," Lindsay said.  
"Or all the other drivers also have a greedy friend with them, who doesn´t want to spend $ 50 for a parking lot," Peter replied and pulled the key from the ignition, "We're here." They were for several hours on the road and Peter was relieved when he was able to stretch his legs. He came in sneakers out of the mobile home when he noticed Lindsay was trying to find a few branches.  
"Campfire again?", he asked. Peter had enough of over the fire grilled steaks and sausages.  
"Either hot dogs," Lindsay said, "or inedible soup."  
"I would gladly prefer the sausages," Connor said, who was searching for a flashlight and then for bug spray in his backpack.  
Peter shook his head and told them he just wanted to walk around in the camp and introduced to their neighbors. Lindsay wondered how long they wanted to stay in Roswell. There wasn´t much to see except for an UFO- museum. They had also promised Anton to send him a postcard from every stay. He would be pleased if he received a postcard with an alien...  
Peter was only fifteen minutes away when he came back and noticed the sausages over the campfire. Since the beginning of their journey, they ate nothing more than that, but they had dinners in restaurants when one was randomly near a street.  
Of course, Lindsay noted Peters face when she handed him a plate with two sausages and a little ketchup. "Don´t worry. There are some good restaurants in the city, "she apologized.  
Lindsay now asked Connor and Peter, how long they actually wanted to stay in Roswell, when they suddenly heard a whirring noise, noticed a small earthquake and then a brief gust of wind swept over them. Lindsay didn´t pay too much attention but Peter told there was a fire in the forest. An orange light changed the trees into a ghostly wall of fire.  
"Let´s have a look," Peter suggested.  
"I think we should call the fire department," Lindsay disagreed, but Peter and Connor were already on their way into the forest. Lindsay followed them reluctantly when they told her the whirring noise they had heard was probably a crashed plane.  
The light showed them the way to a small clearing and they hadn´t expected that only a few trees were burning. Nevertheless, the clearing was full of debris.  
"What's that?", Lindsay asked. She reached for a piece of metal which was on the ground and to her surprise the debris wasn´t hot. It was flexible and she was reflected in it. Lindsay didn´t believe this were parts were of a plane.  
"I can´t see any engine," Connor said. If this was a plane crash there should be some engines or a plane, he thought.  
"You can stop searching for a plane because you won´t find one," a strange voice told them and they turned around.  
"My...", the words stuck in Lindsay's mouth and her heart skipped a beat because of fear. The fact that the wreckage had disappeared all at once, she noticed only at second glance.  
"My name is Paul", the alien said.  
"You... You can talk!", Lindsay interrupted him. Her hands were shaking, "And you're wearing shorts and flip flops!"  
"Would you rather want me walking around naked?"  
"You are pretty cheeky," she said.  
"You too," the creature replied and suddenly it was gone.  
"Did you see what I saw?", Connor asked and his friends nodded in silence, "Have you even seen this alien, too?" They nodded again.  
"I think we should leave," Lindsay suggested. She didn´t plan to stay longer in Roswell and they would tell Anton they hadn´t been here.  
They went back to their caravan, packed their things and their food in a hurry, extinguish the camp fire and then drove the vehicle again to the gate. The owner of the campsite wondered why they were in a hurry, but didn´t make any move to stop them. After all, they had paid for the car park.  
"Where are we going now?", Connor wanted to know when Peter slowed the vehicle in front of a railroad crossing gate. They watched when a train with unmarked wagons passed by. Connor was reminded to a scene from a movie in which an alien virus was transported in unmarked wagons. Finally, the train passed and the crossing gates opened.  
"Did you miss me?", a voice asked and at that moment the little alien showed up behind them. A cry in horror escaped them and even the engine of the vehicle was suddenly turned off.

"My god, what are you?!", Peter yelled and grabbed for a can of coke and threw it to the alien. He now reached for a full bottle of water. "Die!"  
"What…?! Did you just scream die?" The Alien tried to defend himself.  
"Who are you?", Peter asked.  
"My name is Paul, as I said before. And who are you?"  
"I... I... Well," Peter gulped, "Well, I'm Peter. This is Connor and Lindsay... And you are...?"  
"I'm Paul, I told you twice."  
"Oh God," Connor sighed, "Is this a dream? I'm asleep by the campfire?... Who the hell are you?"  
"No, you're not asleep, Dude," Paul answered and went past them to sit on a back seat, "And let me tell you: It's certainly not a dream... So? Where are we going next?" He wasn´t in the mood for explaining to them for the third time, how his name was.  
"Um," Peter looked around confused and when he recalled he was the driver, he sat down behind the steering wheel. He wondered what they were doing here.  
Connor sat down in the passenger seat, Lindsay behind Peter.  
"I can´t believe you are real...", Lindsay reached out to Paul and finally poked his head at various points with her index finger. His skin was dry and leathery.  
"Stop it! I'm not Santa Claus", he cried and fought off her finger.  
"Paul is a very earth- name for an extraterrestrial alien...", Peter observed, while the caravan crossed a street and then drove through the darkness.  
"Yes, this is an embarrassing story," Paul admitted, "I won´t get rid of that name, because on my first arrival on earth I landed on a dog and his name was Paul."  
When Lindsay heard this, she laughed and Peter looked at her in surprise.  
"Watch where you're going!", Paul cried out suddenly from the back seat. Peter now was looking at the street again and saw that the camper headed straight for a cactus. He jerked the steering wheel at the last second, dodging the cactus and the RV ran over a small mound. The occupants were thrown forward and Lindsay, who was sitting behind Peter, was pressed against the driver's seat. The RV then drove across a field full of little plants.  
"I'm going back to the road," Peter declared, "That's where we should make a driver change."  
Connor agreed he would drive next and when they stopped the vehicle, Connor sat in the driver's seat and Lindsay sat on the passenger side, so that Peter could sleep. There was a question in Connor´s mind: "You said you´ve been on Earth before," he began, "What happened back then?"  
Paul thought for a while if he should tell them. "When I landed on Earth for the first time, they brought me to Area 51..."  
While Paul spoke Peter rubbed his tired eyes, but all of a sudden he was wide awake: "Area 51 does really exist?"  
"Yes. I quickly realized I wasn´t a guest there, but a test object. Using an agent, I managed to escape after years and only through the help of Clive, Graeme and Ruth, I escaped from the Big Boss and from certain death."  
"Wait, I know this story... You are the Comic- Alien Paul?", Peter asked. By his nephew, Peter knew the cartoon series "Paul" in which a small alien could escape from the hands of the government.  
"If your experience on Earth had been so terrible, why did you come back?", Lindsay broke her seat belt and got up to get a can of Coke in the fridge of the mobile home. She also brought a can for Connor.  
"Actually, it wasn´t intentional. I was on my way home after I had completed a reconnaissance mission, when the machines in my spaceship suddenly had a problem and I just made an emergency landing on earth."  
When Paul had finished there was silence in the camper.  
"What would Mulder and Scully say?", Peter finally asked and of course it was a rhetorical question.  
"Mulder was my idea," Paul said.  
"We know!" Peter reminded him. As far as he knew it was a scene in the "Paul" - comics in which the naughty alien said he had the idea for the Mulder character. And the ideas for "A close encounter with the Third Kind" by Stephen Spielberg were created by him.  
"And now? I mean, what are you going to do?", Connor asked and glanced in the rearview mirror.  
"I was able to send out a distress signal, so soon a spaceship will come to pick me up."  
"Where will that be?", Connor looked again in the rearview mirror, because Paul now got up from the back seat and also went into the kitchen. On the way there he saw a large piece of paper lying on the table and glanced at it. "Hey, you're on your way to Las Vegas," Paul realized, when he found the map.  
"Yes," Lindsay agreed, "That was before we found you… Or you found us." She had a premonition that Peter wanted to help the little alien and reach the pick coordinates on time and that this would mean the end of their trip.  
Meanwhile, Paul looked at the map more accurate. He saw that they stared their journey in Toronto and apparently had stopped in New York City and Washington D.C. They had even visited Memphis. Then they drove along the east coast to Florida. They had visited New Orleans and Dallas before they finally ended up in Roswell, New Mexico. The next destination on their map was Las Vegas before they were going to Los Angeles and then to San Francisco where they returned the rented mobile home. The three had planned this trip long before and for that they took two months of unpaid leave. Lindsay couldn´t believe that a little green man was about to spoil this holiday. She chased away this idea, because Paul was not green, but gray and his almond-shaped eyes were filled with a blue irises and black pupils. His arms and legs were long and skinny and on each hand he had four fingers. He told them he had healing powers and Paul also had human teeth and mastered their language. Lindsay wondered why Paul was able to speak their language, but he had explained to them he had already lived for 60 years on this planet.  
"Do we have to take you to Devils Tower?," Peter suddenly asked, he looked at Connor and Lindsay, "By the Devils Tower is a table mountain in Wyoming, where Steven Spielberg has shot "A close encounter with the Third Kind"."  
"We know," Lindsay sounded very serious, "We aren´t living under a rock after all."  
Paul now went into the kitchen of the camper, too. "Do you have anything to eat?" He began to look for food in the refrigerator and found only sausages and steaks.  
"I don´t know if we can trust him," Connor doubted, while Paul was busy in the refrigerator and didn´t notice their conversation.  
"Why not?", Peter watched how Paul dug in his luggage. Finally, the alien took out Peters camera, which he put back into the bag. Then he found an iPod, which he put in his tiny ears.  
"Well," Connor whispered, "What if we wake up one day on a metal table and..."  
"Don´t worry," Paul suddenly said when came back to them. He then sat on the backseat on the passenger side, "The rectal examinations of your species have been completed 70 years ago."  
"You see?," Connor hissed and tried to keep the steering wheel still. Paul sat down again on one of the rear seats and reached for the map again. "Maybe you can take me to Nevada. That would be the easiest thing for everybody." The alien pointed on the map to a place that was far north of Las Vegas. They recognized its destination immediately.  
"You want to return to Nevada?", Lindsay wanted to know. She didn´t understand why Paul wanted to return to Area 51, if so many bad things happened to him there.  
"It's the easiest thing for everybody," Paul repeated.

They weren´t on the road the whole night t, but when Lindsay woke up the next morning and more cacti passed by outside, she asked where they were: "Are we in Arizona?"  
Connor was probably a bit more awake and had decided to continue their journey. "Yes. Our next stop is...", he fumbled on the dashboard for the map," Our next stop is a small town called Loveland." He decided that Peter or Lindsay then had to drive, because he was tired. "Did you sleep well?"  
"Yes, even though Paul is snoring like a city full of sawmills," she admitted.  
After another five minutes they reached the town called Loveland and the camper was parked directly in front of a Coffee Shop. Connor had a headache. "I've never been so happy to see a Starbucks," he sounded very relieved. He would go in and buy all the banana muffins, which the store had in stock.  
"Hey, what's up?", Paul asked and the two frightened winced, "Are we in Vegas?"  
"The city is called Loveland and we´re not in...", Connor said, but Paul didn´t give him the opportunity to speak to the end. Instead, he discovered the Starbucks shop and announced that he was looking forward to a Frozen Macchiato.  
"You stay in our camper!", Lindsay told him, "People might see you."  
"Never mind, sweetie," Paul smiled, "I can be invisible. No one will notice me... Come on. I'm hungry." At the moment when Paul opened the door of the vehicle, he disappeared. They quickly got up to follow Paul and when they left their vehicle, they noticed that the door of the Starbucks store opened and closed again as if by magic. Inside the coffee shop Lindsay wrote a note what her friends wanted for breakfast, while Peter already picked a table. In order to help her carry, Connor stayed with Lindsay.  
He noted something tugging at his sleeve and when he couldn´t see anyone, it was only the invisible Paul. He apologized to Lindsay he would go to the restroom. Once there, Paul gasped for air. "Man, that was close," he breathed heavily.  
"Are you insane?", Connor asked him. He cast a searching look into the other cabins of the men's room to convince himself they were alone.  
"I can tell you, when I was smoking it was worse." Paul didn´t pay attention. An annoyed Connor shook his head and washed his hands. Paul joined him to a different sink and did likewise.  
"Are you now done with breathing?", Connor wanted to know and Paul nodded. They went to the door, Paul held his breath and was immediately invisible. Together with Connor, he went to the table at which Peter and Lindsay sat. "This is really a strange situation," Peter said. He was still a little tired.  
Connor agreed with him, at that moment Lindsay had to get up, because the Asian Starbucks- lady called her name, so she picked up four cups of cappuccino. The woman was a little surprised when she saw that only three of them sat at the table, but they had ordered a lot of cups. Suddenly the fourth plastic cup arose and like magic, the contents emptied completely. The Asian woman felt dizzy and was suddenly unconscious. Her anxious mate behind the muffin counter was trying to figure out why she was unconscious and when he saw the floating coffee cup, the Asian man started screaming. The people in the Starbucks café rose in panic from their tables and Lindsay looked around, confused. "What? What's going on?", Paul asked, confused.  
"You are visible!", Connor said and now the people ran out of the cafe.  
"There's an alien!", a young woman screamed as she rushed through the door. The coffee shop was empty, only Connor, Lindsay, Peter and Paul were sitting at their table. Actually, it was frightening Lindsay, that dealing with an alien belonged to normalcy for them. "We should leave," she suggested. They picked up their coffee cups, took the muffins and yogurt, which they had ordered for breakfast and went out of the building. Peter thought it best, if they looked a little scared, too: Then people wouldn´t think it was suspicious and didn´t come up with the idea they were traveling with Paul. They reached their vehicle before a gaping crowd gathered around the cafe. Finally the door opened and a levitating coffee cup came out. "Paul," Lindsay whispered. She couldn´t believe he had actually got another coffee and then had the nerve to carry the mug, so everybody could see him.  
The crowd broke out in panic, Paul dropped the coffee cup and dived into the camper. With creaky tires Connor drove away. They drove down the main street of Loveland and found out that the police luckily wasn´t following them.  
"We have reached the end of the city," Connor proclaimed.  
"Look," when they drove past to an electronics store, in whose windows were quite a few televisions, Lindsay saw that some people had sent a video of Paul to broadcasting companies and the video was already aired on television. Such were the effects of the digital age, she thought. Connor also saw the video in the TVs of the store.  
"Great! Great!... Really great! Paul can be seen on national television now!", he grumbled.  
"At least this time we aren´t followed by the FBI and the Men in Black," Paul replied and Connor rolled his eyes. But this time the press chased them and probably every person on the globe, and that wasn´t much better.  
Lindsay went to the back are of the camper, turned on a portable television set, watching the news very closely. There she could see how Paul ran hurriedly across a road and then disappeared inside her mobile home. A newscaster then confirmed that the five-second, but shaky mobile phone video was genuine.  
"Well, at least the video didn´t show us on television," she muttered and turned off the small TV. She could hardly imagine what was going on in the OSIR headquarters, when people found out that Connor, Lindsay and Peter helped the small visitor from another planet. Then they were off their jobs, Lindsay was sure. Fortunately, their license plate couldn´t be recognized in the video...  
"Why didn´t you make yourself invisible?", Lindsay wanted to know form Paul and he shrugged his bony shoulders helplessly. He had forgotten that moment, when a little child in the crowd in front of the cafe cried out and pointed at him.  
"People will know our destination is Area 51... We should take a detour," Peter suggested and sat in the passenger seat to get a better talk to Connor, "We drive north through Utah and then to the Nevada State Route 6 and then on State Route 375 and 93 to Las Vegas. At State Route 375, we can depose Paul." The Route 375 was famous in the world for its proximity to the alleged Area 51 and was called "Extraterrestrial Highway". The only and well known place along the road was a small trailer park named Rachel, where many of the few transients visited the Little A'Le'Inn, a bar decorated with UFOs and aliens.  
"This detour will last one day!," Connor complained.  
"Do you have a better idea to help him?"  
Of course, Connor hadn´t any better idea and they drove north towards Utah. As Peter had proposed.

They were almost one day on the road until they reached the Extraterrestrial Highway. During that journey they just had dinner in small restaurants near the road and refilled the caravan at a gas station. They had even stopped at the famous Littel A'Le 'Inn, to eat an Alien Burger. Of course, Paul had protested, but they told him they didn´t eat a real alien.  
"Where are we?", asked Peter, when the darkness came across the barren desert landscape. He sat down on a back seat, because Connor was driving and Lindsay sat next to him.  
"It´s Tikaboo Valley... I think," Connor said when he handed the map to Lindsay.  
"Look," Lindsay muttered, who leaned her head on the passenger door, "A black mailbox..." This mailbox was the only clue on the road for miles and she had read once the mailbox belonged to the Farmer Steve, who had a farm here. Some people even came to this place and were shooting at the mailbox with their rifles. That´s why Steve had to replace his mailbox regularly. Lindsay had also read that in the 80s and 90s, this place was the destination of UFO-curious who drove into the desert every Wednesday to watch test flights over Groom Lake base. Now and then they saw in the early hours of the morning strange, wildly dancing points of lights in the sky, often flying impossible maneuvers. When finally whole busloads of people came to this place, the test flights ended, but the legend of the UFOs at Area 51 was continued to grow and attracted visitors from all over the world.  
"I'm pretty tired," Connor said. He noted only from the corner of his eye, when Paul came to them in the driver's area and quietly said they had reached their destination. Connor stopped the caravan on the right side of the road and then they all got out. "Can you see anything?", Lindsay asked, while Paul went through a field of barren desert plants and watched the sky.  
"No," Peter replied, "Paul, you're sure we are right?"  
"Pretty sure."  
"And how do you know?"  
Paul had a small, flexible card with him and a small flashing light marked this place as a meeting point with his spaceship. "We're right here. I just know it."  
They watched the sky for an hour and nothing happened. "There?", Lindsay exclaimed suddenly, pointing to a bright point of light moving rapidly forward.  
"This is a civil aircraft," Connor said. He didn´t say it, but apparently Paul's friends weren´t very reliable. "Are we too early?", he wanted to know, but then he had an idea, "Let´s stay here. Maybe we´re really early."

"It's pretty cold here," Peter complained, when he reached for his sleeping bag, "Why do we have to sleep outside? To watch the sky?"  
"I definitely don´t stay another night next to Paul in the same mobile home," Lindsay declared, "He snores like a grizzly bear."  
"Then Paul should sleep outside."  
"He can´t sleep outside," Connor, said "He can´t hold his breath so long and make himself invisible. What if someone comes along and sees him?"  
"As if anyone would ever come along out here," Peter grabbed his pillow and turned around, while Connor and Lindsay were resting in their sleeping bags, watching the sky. "You have to admit, that's pretty scary," Lindsay muttered. The idea that a spaceship could appear over their heads frightened her. Finally they didn´t stay the night in the desert of Nevada near Area 51 every day. In the distance she heard a coyote howl. She asked Connor if they had a gun to defend themselves against wild animals, but Connor explained this wasn´t necessary as long as one of them stayed awake and kept the camp fire going. He was willing to take the first shift of the night watch. "Peter´s asleep already?", Connor wanted to know and Lindsay nodded. Connor promised to wake her in three hours for the next shift. So that night they were watching the sky, but only a few planes and a shooting star passed by.

"You have really great friends," Connor noted the next morning, when they were traveling south on the Highway. They had decided they would now go to Las Vegas, where they would wait until the light on Paul's map showed a reaction again, because when Paul woke up this morning and he couldn´t see any spaceship in the sky, he looked at his map: The flashing light on his flexible map was extinguished.  
Connor thought it wasn´t a good idea to take an alien to Las Vegas, where many people were and it was a great risk that someone would see him.  
"Don´t worry, Earthling," Paul said to Connor, as he sat in the front passenger seat, "We just say it´s a costume."  
Their journey lasted an hour, when they finally reached the glittering metropolis in the desert and at first they drove past the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "We're here," Connor muttered and his friends looked out of the window. By day, the sparkling lights of Las Vegas were turned off, but the big hotels on the Strip weren´t less impressive. "This is so nice", Lindsay said.  
"What is our hotel?", Paul asked, when the Circus Circus Hotel passed by on the right side of the road. Connor had to stop the caravan at a red light and at that moment, someone threw a large towel over Paul. He struggled and shouted for help. Finally, he managed to free himself. "What are you doing?", he pushed the cloth away.  
"Dressing you up," Lindsay replied. She threw a prepared bed sheet with two holes over Paul and told him not to complain. "Why don´t you give me another chain, so I can shake it like a ghost?", he asked.  
Under the cloth and through the holes he saw the big hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, passing by: He saw the Treasure Island with two pirate ships and the Mirage with some dolphin figures. Then they passed by the Caesars Palace. "Do you know Celine Dion has an own shop at Caesars Palace?", Paul asked.  
"Yes", Peter, Connor and Lindsay replied.  
"Oh, of course you know. I forgot: You´re Canadian, too." Then the alien started singing "My heart will go on".  
"Hey, Celine Dion is the most popular Canadian, so no Celine Dion- jokes….!"  
"Peter, calm down", Connor muttered. After the world famous Bellagio hotel, Connor left the strip and headed up the mobile home on a busy street. In front of a huge building, they stopped, got out and Connor gave the car keys to a young man.  
"This is the Aria," Paul muttered.  
"Be quiet," Lindsay told him, "At least we can pay this hotel." She grabbed his hand. Finally they reached the hotel reception. "Good day", a woman smiled gently, "Welcome to the Aria. Have you booked?"  
"Yes," Connor looked around intently and told her the confirmation number. Then the woman frowned. "It says you have only booked a suite for three people," her eyes fell on the child, who was dressed as a ghost, "But you're lucky: Children under 12 stay for free in our hotel."  
Internally, Lindsay sighed of relief. The lady at the desk gave Connor three room keys for their suite and said goodbye with the words: "I wish you and your family a wonderful time at our hotel."  
They took the elevator to their suite. "If you are father, mother and child… Who am I?", Peter asked.  
"No idea", Connor said, "Maybe our uncle from Mars?"  
"Where all the monsters come from", Peter complained and Lindsay giggled.  
In their suite, Paul pulled the sheets off his head relieved. "Very nice and warm," he sighed. Of course, their room was very nice and well kept. On a shiny wooden table was even a fire-red orchid. Lindsay had never seen such a flower before. "What do we do first?", Paul wanted to know, "Let's look at the fountain show at the Bellagio, or what about going to the pool? What about watching Zumanity?" He hoped that Lindsay didn´t intend to go shopping.  
"We? If you want to come along, you have to wear your bed sheets…. And I won´t watch Zumanity. My god, I had no idea you like human women." Lindsay didn´t want to risk a panic because of Paul, even in Las Vegas. At that moment, she remembered the shaky cell phone video that was broadcast nationwide on the news. She sat down on the soft hotel bed and reached for the remote control. On the Discovery Channel it was Shark Week at the moment, so she switched to Fox News. Here the appearance of the little green man was eagerly discussed and Lindsay turned off the TV.  
"Let´s have a nice holiday and don´t think about the video on the news," she decided.

_"I'm on the floor, floor _  
_I love to dance _  
_So give me more, more, 'til I can't stand _  
_Get on the floor, floor _  
_Like it's your last chance _  
_If you want more, more _  
_Then here I am _

_Starships were meant to fly _  
_Hands up and touch the sky _  
_Can't stop cause we're so high _  
_Let's do this one more time" _ ("Starships" by Nicki Minaj)

They were persuaded by Paul to spend the day at the pool, but only on condition that he stayed under his bed sheets. Connor and Lindsay got three beach chairs in the shade of a palm. If Lindsay had swum in the water a little, it took only minutes until the sun had dried her again.  
A waitress in a red dress came and brought them their drinks. "Wouldn´t it be fun if your child joins our children's entertainment program?", she asked, pointing at Paul.  
"Our child?", Connor asked, watching Lindsay, who was lying on a beach chair next to him. Then it occurred to him. "Oh!... Um...", he looked now at a loss to Paul who lay on his right and nearly sweated to death under the sheets, "No, our son is a little bit shy."  
"And he has a sun allergy... That's why he has to wear this sheet," Lindsay added behind the magazine. The waitress left and Lindsay began to giggle: "She must be thinking we´re terrible parents if we travel to one of the warmest places in the world with our sun-allergic child."  
"Well, she´d be right: You are evil people. I can´t even eat some ice cream under my blanket", Paul announced because under his bed sheets, it was really hot.  
"You are quite rude," Lindsay said and lay down on her stretcher. At least for her it was a beautiful day.

The next morning, Peter was alone on the way to breakfast. When he left his room he discovered two reporters who were standing in the hallway, talking to a maid. Peter hurried to get back into the suite. "They're here", he said excitedly and Connor didn´t understand. He, Lindsay and Paul had ordered breakfast at room service and he assumed it was about this. "Outside in the hallway, there are two reporters," he told them also of the cameras they had with them.  
"I don´t think they are here because of me," Paul said, "Maybe they just write a report about the hotel."  
"Said the alien who was seen on national television yesterday," Connor muttered. Paul picked up a flower that was in the table arrangement and ate it. As far as Lindsay knew orchids were a unit for consumption.  
"Maybe they followed us," Lindsay thought. And she hated the thought the hadn´t noticed.  
"I'm not happy, but I think our time in Vegas is over," she took a long sip of coffee and got up. Then they packed their bags and left the room with their suitcases. Paul, dressed in his bed sheets, followed them. Sometimes he turned around to the reporters who were still talking to the maid. Obviously the Hispanic woman couldn´t understand the two men. One of the reporters turned around and saw them leaving their room. Apparently he had noticed Paul's big head under the big cloth and his feet sticking out from under his sheet. "There he is!", one of the reporters cried and at that moment Lindsay grabbed Paul's arm and they ran as fast as they could to the elevator. Peter pushed the button like crazy and he was relieved when a lift stopped and they entered. They drove down to the parking deck. "Hopefully, the guy has to take the stairs," Paul muttered. They reached the parking garage, Connor took the keys and then they finally got into their motor home. "Where are we going?", Lindsay asked, while Connor started the engine.  
The question was unnecessary, when Paul heard a beeping noise. He pulled out his small, flexible map from his pocket and saw the bustling spot was there again, marking the coordinates where his friends would pick him up. "Here we go."

Connor drove the caravan as fast as possible along the highway heading north again. He kept looking anxiously in the mirror, if someone was following them, but it wasn´t so. Two hours later they reached the place where they had camped recently.  
"It's dark," Lindsay said, when she got out. It was an early afternoon in August and this time it should be as bright as day and hot in the Nevada desert. Instead, it was dark and a bit cold.  
They walked between a few scrawny trees together, away from the Caravan, when they suddenly heard a banging noise and voices. "No way!," Peter whispered, while he and his friends stared running. He couldn´t believe that the reporter had tracked them yet. When Peter had caught up to Lindsay and Connor, he held them back. "Lindsay, take Paul and bring him to safety."  
"But...!"  
"If the guys don´t see him, we have a chance to say it was all a mistake... And now leave. We´ll try to stop them."  
"How?"  
"Let that be our problem."  
"No, I can´t! I can´t... ", she shook her head vigorously.  
"Please go!"  
"No!"  
"You HAVE to!" Peter didn´t want to yell at her, but it was important that they helped Paul.  
"Okay," Lindsay nodded frantically, took Paul's arm and ran as fast as she could.

Lindsay gasped for air as she jumped over a small ditch. Paul followed her and landed hard on his knees on the floor. "Go on," she grabbed his hand again.  
She kept running until she had to stop behind a rock to catch her breath. Lindsay noted they couldn´t have run far, because she still heard loud voices. One of them was Peter, who yelled there was nothing to see outside. With a jerk she pushed away from the rocks and with Paul she started running again.  
"Do you know where we have to go?", she asked. They climbed hastily down a small canyon and when they reached the ground, Lindsay's legs gave in. Paul also rolled across the floor.  
"I can´t," she said to the little alien, "I've made a mistake. I... I shouldn´t have let my friends down. "  
Now she and Paul were alone in the canyon. A loud noise made Lindsay jump up and her heart skipped a beat. She looked to the sky and watched as a point of light fell back to earth a hundred yards before them, in a place where the canyon widened. The air trembled and the light beam was transformed into a large mother ship. A metal door opened. In the glaring light, which came from inside the spaceship, a small, dressed in robes figure was waiting.  
"It´s alright," Paul muttered, when Lindsay wanted to get up and start running, "These are my friends."  
"Then you have to go," she told him and he bowed his head.  
"I know. Hey, I'm sorry that I've spoiled your holiday."  
"That's okay," Lindsay tried to smile, "It was a great time."  
Even Paul smiled as he walked up to the light. When he had almost reached it, he turned to her and said, "Good luck."  
Behind Paul the doors of the spaceship closed and it slowly began to lift off the ground. When the UFO disappeared among the stars a few shooting stars were raining across the sky. Lindsay noticed she get up and go back to Connor and Peter. The way out of the canyon was difficult, but she was glad when she reached her friends after a seemingly endless trek.  
"Lindsay!", Connor said excitedly and ran to her in order to embrace her. Only at second glance he saw that her face was full of dust and scrapes in her hands.  
"Lindsay, what happened?", Peter now asked, "Where's Paul? He made it? Did you see the spaceship?"  
"That's a lot of questions at once," she noted dryly. Finally, she told them about the spaceship that had come to pick up Paul. "Where are the reporters?", she asked.  
"Those have become afraid when they saw the spaceship landing."  
"Strange," she muttered and was helped by Peter and Connor to return to the camper with whom they went back to Las Vegas to enjoy the rest of their vacation.

When Peter developed the photos on his camera in a drugstore in Las Vegas, he was astonished by a strange picture. It showed Peter, Connor and Lindsay sleeping side by side on the floor of the camper in their sleeping bags. Paul had put himself between them held the camera and grinned impudently. Peter wondered when the alien had shot this picture, but he guessed it. It must have happened on the night when they had found him and he joined their U.S. tour.  
"Crazy," Peter shook his head and put the photo back into the paper bag. It was the only real proof of Paul's existence apart from the shaky cell phone video, which haunted the media since that fateful day in Loveland.  
But Peter was happy to own the only real proof.

Fin


End file.
